1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to panel mounted connectors mountable in a compact juxtaposed manner in particular for interconnection with ring-tongue terminals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is common to find in the telecommunications industry, connectors having a large plurality of cables connected thereto, mounted to panels and matable with complementary connectors mounted on printed circuit boards. The panel may be a backpanel within a cabinet-like structure, the printed circuit boards being disposed perpendicularly thereto, whereby the connectors are blindly coupled by sliding the printed circuit boards into the cabinet until the connectors are mated.
Some backpanel connectors may comprise screw clamp terminals arranged in a pair of long rows whereby electrical connection is made to conductors by insertion thereof under a screw head which is then tightened to clamp the conductor against the terminal. Adjacent terminals must be separated by an insulative wall of sufficient length to ensure a sufficiently long electrical creep path therebetween. The latter however increases the width of the connector and therefore decreases the number of connectors that can be mounted to a given backpanel. There is therefore a need to provide a more compact panel mount connector having screw clamp terminals for interconnection to conductors such as a ring-tongue terminals.